Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14, ESV).
The Bible has a special place for children.
This is an amazing aspect of scriptural teaching that wasn’t generally reflected by other cultures in Biblical times. Nations surrounding Israel in Old Testament times were judged for child sacrifice, and both the Greeks and the Romans of New Testament times allowed child slavery and other forms of abuse!
But Jesus said, “Let the little children come!”
The Bible defines that a child’s life begins with blood! Moses writes in Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” With blood, there is a Biblically defined life. We know today that a fetus has blood about day 17!
Physical life begins with blood in the womb, but the Bible gives more details as to when our life really begins. God says to Jeremiah . . .
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you (Jeremiah 1:5, ESV).
Psalm 139:16 teaches . . .
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed (NLT).
This next idea should be obvious to all (but is challenged today in our culture), but the Bible says that parents are the primary authority in a child’s life and are responsible for raising them.
Commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine . . . Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up (Deut. 11:18-19, NLT).
Children are a blessing, but unfortunately, the more a culture becomes progressive, their life has less value, can be considered inconvenient, aborted on a whim, and such a bother that authority for their training is given to the state.
Let’s remember these verses . . .
Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them! (Psalm 127:3-5)
The dire circumstances of children in the Roman Empire became so awful that unwanted children were abandoned in wilderness areas. There are stories that Christians would search these areas at night for these abandoned children and take them home to raise them!
James, the Lord’s brother, realizing this negative view of children in his day, writes . . .
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world’s ideas of children corrupt you (James 1:27, OGV).
I confess that I believe the Bible literally. If God created us in the womb and made plans for our life before we are born, I respect life from womb to tomb.
When we give up Biblical understanding of the value of infants and also of the training of children, can we successfully solve our disputes with an election?
Decreeing the value of life by majority vote is scary. Who will be voted out next — senior citizens or those with disabilities?